by Jason Saffer, M.A., Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist We are beginning to witness a mounting backlash against the recovery movement in general and recovery-oriented psychotherapy in particular. In response to a heightened awareness that absent, shaming, neglectful, abusive, or overcontrolling parents have created a nation of dysfunctional people with suffering self-esteem, detractors are having […]

Eyes cast down, she walked into the group room and sat in her usual chair. Touching her shoulder and wincing with pain, Emma listened as others in the group spoke. Although clearly distressed by the amount of pain she was still enduring from her recent surgery, she sat there suffering in silence. I asked […]

by Jason Saffer, MA, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist On our website, we talk about one of our core beliefs — “that every situation, every experience — no matter how difficult, painful, or “stuck” it may be — holds within it the opportunity for creative growth.” What exactly does that mean? What do we […]

by Jason Saffer, M.A., Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist As we have progressed through the early stages of the 21st century, it has become increasingly clear that a basic root cause of human misery, violence, despair, and conflict is the widespread experience and perpetuation of toxic shame. Underlying almost all instances and episodes of human […]

by Jason Saffer, M.A., Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist In a recent two-part interview, “Finding a Therapist” and “What’s the Best Kind of Therapy for You?”, Marcia Perlstein offered her views on what to look for in a therapist and how to assess the type of therapy one is getting. Like Marcia, I, too, […]

by Jason Saffer, M.A., Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist It’s been over thirty years, but I still remember the pain of junior high school. That’s when schooling and education began to go bad. That’s when the joy of learning began to get tainted, overlaid by a new imperative: evaluation, testing, “making the grade.” School […]

Note: The following article was originally written by Teresa Kaplan as part of her Master’s-level graduate work in psychology. It is a moving blend of valuable information about what inner child therapy is — and how it is conducted with therapy clients — interwoven with her heartfelt account of her own personal journey of […]